oc'ing new XP 1800+ what to expect?

[JoshDaynard]

Well, I finally got this beast up and running. It's so amazingly fast compared to anything I've ever used that I wasn't even tempted to overclock it.

OK, that lasted about a day . Now I'm testing it out at 145 FSB and so far so good. WCPUID is reporting 1671.89MHz and the hardware monitoring program is showing a steady 40.5C for the proc and 25C for the System.

How do I post screen shots on this forum???

God, I love this thing. So far, I've benchmarked it with 3DMark2001 and saw an average around 8100. I'm assuming that's good, since there was only one other guy above me at 8200 when I did the online comparison of people with the same CPU. Any other recommendations on benchmarking utilities?

I REALLY want to unlock this processor as I seem to be having no problems whatsoever with heat (didn't expect any with this case and HSF combo), but I'm nervous about cranking up the FSB too much. I just watched the tomshardware video on it and of course they make it look so easy (but how many procs did they fry in the learning process? I only have 1!).

- Josh

 

[Kadarin]

Hi Josh,

Thanks for the informative post! I have a (rather no0b) question: How does adjusting memory/processor voltage figure into this? In other words, as FSB speed goes up, do you also need to gradually increase voltage to one or both components? If so, why?

-j

 

[JoshDaynard]

<< How does adjusting memory/processor voltage figure into this? In other words, as FSB speed goes up, do you also need to gradually increase voltage to one or both components? If so, why? >>


Typically, the more you try to overclock your components (CPU, memory, etc.), the more you need to increase their voltage in order for them to be able to function properly. These things are really just a ton of transistors with electrical signals going through them and as you try to make them go faster and faster, the more likely it is that they will lose track of this signal. Higher voltage gives them more 'breathing room'. I know that's not a very scientific answer, but it's the best I can do at the moment (it's early). The downside of higher voltage of course is added heat. So, if you're going to increase the voltage, you have to be sure that you can dissipate the extra heat that will be generated. Also, you probably shouldn't increase the voltage on your CPU or memory unless you have to. In other words, if you can overclock without adding voltage, that is better, but if you're having stability issues, increasing the voltage may be the cure.

- Josh

 

[Newbie77]

Don't quite believe the cpu database at overclockers.com. I'd rather rely on the experience relayed by the ppl here in this forum.

Is achieving speeds in excess of 1.7ghz (@1.85v) a norm with the Athlon XP 1800+ if it's still locked?

 

[sygyzy]

Thought I'd chime in to offer some help and to get some as well. I just finished my Soyo Dragon Plus system with an Athlon XP 1800+ AMD gave to me . Anyways, I am running it at 145 x 11.5 = 1668 Mhz. It is rock steady. It crashed a few times and I thought perhaps it was my o/c the Gainward Golden Sample Ti450 I have but that was not the case. Interestingly enough I had the voltage to +0.100 or something and dropped it to +0.075 (i might be a few decimals off, I am sure you get what I mean) and that made it more stable. I tried 150 and failed miserably. I had to resent my bios.

Can anyone tell me what the stock/defaul voltage for the XP1800+ is? Also, if the formula is Real Speed x 3/2 - 500 = Athlon XP speed, does that mean my CPU is running like a Athlon XP 2000+?

Thanks,
Sygyzy

 

[JoshDaynard]

<< Can anyone tell me what the stock/defaul voltage for the XP1800+ is? >>


I think it's 1.75. I'll confirm on my next reboot and edit it if I'm wrong



<< Also, if the formula is Real Speed x 3/2 - 500 = Athlon XP speed, does that mean my CPU is running like a Athlon XP 2000+? >>


Ummm, dunno about that formula, but I assume that for the 2000+, they are just going to up the multiplier by another .5 over the 1900+ which means it should be running at 12.5 x 133 = ~1666. So I would say the answer is yes, you're CPU is running at approximately the speed of a 2000+.

FYI, I'm also running rock solid at 145MHz FSB x 11.5. I also crashed and burned at 150. My CPU does POST successfully at that speed, but my system is not able to fully load the OS without a page fault and the BSOD, so I'm guesssing it's my Crucial PC2100 CAS 2.5 giving out. From previous posts, it seems like I could probably get it running with the right memory settings, but I'm really not wanting that badly for speed right now. Of course the only way to really find out if it's the CPU or the overclocked components holding me back is to unlock the proc ... I'm so tempted.

 

[sygyzy]

I can get it to post and run windows at 145 fsb x 11.5 mult, but it is not stable at all. Things work fine for the most part and I can run SiSoft burn tests fine but I notice little things that are problematic. Sometimes it will randomly reboot or some setup files cannot extract correctly. Once I change it to stock 133 mhz it runs like a charm. Any tips on memory or other bios settings? Can someone running at 145 fsb please post their memory/ram, voltage, etc settings? The whole shebang. I have all my systems o/c and it's killing me I cannot o/c this one (at least not as high as I want)

 

[Newbie77]

Josh, I think the problem lies in using 2 sticks of ram. Trying using one and you should be able to see stability higher FSB. Also, there are rumours that using the ram on Slots 2 and 4 offers better stability and overclockability. I haven't tried it out on my rig. Perhaps you can check whether it's true.

 

[Assimilator1]

sygyzy
What cpu voltage have you tried?
What are your current RAM timings?

Mine are
CAS 2-2-2-6 ,4 way interleave,2T command.2.65v IO voltage
cpu voltage 1.75v (shown as 1.79)
I have 2x256Mb DDR Crucial CL2.5 sticks on an Asus A7V 266-E

 

[sygyzy]

Assim,

I hope you can help me. Here are the specs as best as I can figure.

Athlon XP 1800+ Retail Unlocked
Soyo Dragon Plus

I changed my settings to best meet yours, or at least to the best of my ability.

145 FSB
+0.00 V Core
Cas Latency 2
Bank 4
Precharge 2T
Active to Precharge 6T
Active to Command 2T
DRAM 4 Level
Write Recovery 2T
DRAM Command 2T

According to Motherboard Monitor -
Core 0 - 1.82V
Core 1 - 2.50V

I don't know how to change the 2.65 IO Voltage that you have. Is that Core 1? That's the closest number in terms of voltages.

I am writing to you with these settings right now. In other words, overclocked. But you just wait and something funky will happen I am sure.

 

[Assimilator1]

Re IO voltage it's possible your m/brd doesn't have that adjustable

Your RAM timings are the same as mine,seeing as you have your cpu unlocked a good way to find your highest FSB (which will ultimately be limited by your RAM & maybe what PCi bus your PCI cards can handle) is to set the multiplier to a low(say to 9x) setting effectively underclocking your cpu ,this removes the cpu as the limiting factor.Then just gradually ramp up the FSB in 5MHz steps until it is unstable ,then go down 1 step.
Lets say you manage 150MHz FSB (that's 9x150=1350 MHz,cpu is not being stressed).Test that using a 3D game or benchmark ,e.g. 3D Mark 2000 to make sure it is stable (ideally for 3hrs looping).Assuming you find it stable then increase the multiplier by .5x until the cpu becomes unstable,at that point you can either try increasing the cpu vcore in the smallest steps to stablise it or drop the muliplier down by .5x ,retest looping a 3D game/app ,if stable you now have your highest FSB along with the highest cpu MHz.
Of course you could try increasing the FSB by 1MHz steps ,you might find that 153MHz is possible too in this case

Good luck & keep us posted

Btw if you want to test your cpu temps then a good program to stress your cpu is SETI,oh ,also you would gain bragging rights by having fast times with that rig.
Mine completes most SETI units in 3.5hrs ,can you beat that? ,I get peak cpu temps of 50C with case & room at 25C
For more info on SETI check out my sig

 

[flexy]

<< Thought I'd chime in to offer some help and to get some as well. I just finished my Soyo Dragon Plus system with an Athlon XP 1800+ AMD gave to me . Anyways, I am running it at 145 x 11.5 = 1668 Mhz. It is rock steady. It crashed a few times and I thought perhaps it was my o/c the Gainward Golden Sample Ti450 I have but that was not the case. Interestingly enough I had the voltage to +0.100 or something and dropped it to +0.075 (i might be a few decimals off, I am sure you get what I mean) and that made it more stable. I tried 150 and failed miserably. I had to resent my bios.

Can anyone tell me what the stock/defaul voltage for the XP1800+ is? Also, if the formula is Real Speed x 3/2 - 500 = Athlon XP speed, does that mean my CPU is running like a Athlon XP 2000+?

Thanks,
Sygyzy >>



i am almost positive (at least for soyo dragon plus and athlon xp 1800, LOCKED and eg. crucial 2100 ddrram) that the sweet spot is like 145/146 mhz FSB. It's what i am running right now and i already heard of many people coming to the same results. As soon as they exceed 146 there are problems !

My temps are like 40 idle and 46/47 full load btw.

 

[flexy]

if you have a soyo dragon plus..

tweak all you mem settings to the max (NOT the 'turbo' mode in soyo combo bios, leave that at 'normal')....tweak dram settings, BUT leave 'write recovery time' at '2T' !!!! (Also leave Ram Queue etc. alone) The' write recovery time 2T' helped me to get a flakey system at 146 mhz rock-stable now at 11.5*146 !

 

[sygyzy]

I am so sorry! I posted that my 1800+ was unlocked in the previous post and that is incorrect. I wasn't thinking straight. The CPU is locked and I have no plans of unlocking it. So now what are your recommendations? I am running at 140 fsb and +.025 voltage = ~1.79 core0 and ~2.48 core1. M/B temp is ~30C and 40C CPU temp. I am o/c my GeForce Ti200 card as well. Do you think that the instabilty lies with the dual o/c? Maybe I can try 145FSB (my goal) and lower the clockspeed on the GF, or will that not make a difference? I noticed many people are able to hit 145 fine, but not myself. I am running a VERY typical setup here (crucial 2 x 256MB, retail 1800, and soyo dragon plus).

Thanks,
David

 

[flexy]

i'd leave the gfx card alone first and try to up my FSB...145 should be reasonable.

tweak your bios, dram settings (except dram queue and write recovery, bank interleave to 4 )....if this dont work try with one stick of ram.

> BIOS Setting:
> DRAM Timing : Manual
> DRAM CAS Latency : 2
> Bank Interleave : 4 Bank
> Precharge to Active(Trp) : 2T
> Active to Precharge(Tras) : 5T
> Active to CMD (Trcd) : 2T
> DRAM Queue Depth : 4 Level
> DRAM Command Rate : 1T Command
> Write Recovery Time : 2T
>

Should be the best settings !

if you have your fsb running fine then you can tweak your graka...

 

[sygyzy]

Going to reboot and try your settings at 145FSB. What voltage do you recommend? Rather what voltage increase?

 

[Assimilator1]

The cpu vcore depends entirely on the cpu itself,try the default voltage 1st ,if that's not stable try increasing by the smallest steps until stable.I would recommend against going over 10% over std vcore(if poss)

 

[sygyzy]

Tried the settings recommended at 145 FSB and get horrible stability. Sometimes it'd enter Windows and just reboot before fully loading. I am running at 140 FSB with no problems with little increase in voltage. 1-2 steps. I am very disappointed that my results are so varying at 145. I either get horrible stability or okay stability. Either way it's too unstable to be usable. So should I just consider myself unlucky or is there anything else I am missing here? BTW, I dont think temps are an issue. I always hover around low 30's (MB) and low 40's (CPU).

 

[Assimilator1]

Did you try a higher cpu vcore?
Did you try Active to Precharge(Tras) at 6?

Whch version of Windows do you have?

 

[sygyzy]

The most I can increase the voltage is +.100 and I have tried that. I am pretty sure I have tried active precharge at 6 but I will double check later. I have Windows XP Professional. Just earlier I had it o/c and it just rebooted during installing Adobe Photoshop. What am I doing wrong?!

 

[Assimilator1]

It may just be that you have a poor cpu with little room left for overclocking ,but the only way to be sure is to unlock it & raise the multiplier

 

[JoshDaynard]

WOW! I just changed my memory timings to match what I've been reading here and elsewhere and OH MY GOD has my speed drastically increased! With stock Abit 'performance defaults' (ha!), I was seeing around 8100 on 3DMark2001 (at 145FSB x 11.5). Now that I set memory according to the more aggresive settings posted above and on some review sites, with my FSB at the exact same speed, I just scored 8775!!! That is a HUGE increase just for memory timings in my opinion!!! The ONLY other change I made was on the first SoftMenu screen at the bottom for CPU decode speed ... I changed it from Normal to Ultra. I just didn't expect such a drastic performance boost from these settings, so I had to report. I'd be glad to post a screenshot of the 3DMark score if someone will tell me how on this forum.

- Josh

 

[Newbie77]

Nice score josh.. Just wondering, since you are using SB Audigy on your rig, are you having any incompatibility problems with the board? I am thinking of getting an Audigy myself but I have been reading that some users have been encountering problems when the KR7A-Raid and Audigy are used together. Any such hiccups in your case?

By the way, I managed to get my AGKGA Y 1800+ at 1702ghz (148x11.5) @ 1.85v, air-cooled using Swiftech MC462-A. What do you guys think of this overclock? At 1.7ghz, my system feels kinda "edgy". I doubt it would pass a few hours of stability tests. However, it feel completely stable at 1690ghz.

 

[JoshDaynard]

Newbie77,

Right from the get-go with my clean XP Pro installation, as soon as I loaded the drivers off of the disk that came with the Audigy it started blowing up on me left and right. After that, I went to the SB site and downloaded a more recent set of drivers. These seem to be much more stable. I don't recall any problems after that except maybe once when I tried to run their stupid EAX demo. I wish I had known a little more before I bought this sound card as I might have chosen otherwise. I was considering a more 'audiophile' solution in the M-Audio Delta 410 card, but that thing was like $209 (check it out here), so for the $$$, the audigy seems to perform pretty well (after I installed the new drivers), but I'll probably upgrade to something better for HTPC later.

I've been running at these new memory timings for a day now and everything seems stable except one time 3DMark2001 exited unexpectedly on me (no crash of Windows though). I'm going to keep pushing my luck and hope that was a fluke, although I may not stand up to hardcore load testing in this config either.

 

[Assimilator1]

Josh
Nice increase from the better RAM timings

Another program you could use to test the stability of your CPU & RAM is SETI@Home ,you could just leave this running whilst your surfing or whatever ,if your RAM isn't stable SETI will spit out Work Units in a matter of minutes instead of hours.If you're interested check out my sig